Age Related Physical Fitness Changes

When do women reach their peak physical fitness? What happens after that?

The common wisdom backed by data indicates late 20’s to early 30’s.

Believe this only if you are willing to throw away thousands of years of data that shows you as a spiritual being through the power of mind influence your body.

Your actions have outcomes. One of those outcomes is the process of aging. Studies do not include how modification of actions changes the physical fitness.

For now, let’s stay with the common wisdom that covers the majority. I hope you choose to forge your path that may not follow the majority.

Flexibility

Flexibility becomes challenging by age. How is this tested?

There are standard flexibility tests including sit and reach. You sit on your hunches and reach for your toes. Many lose 3 to 4 inches of flexibility through age.

The scientific explanation is collage fiber cross-linking. As these fibers link across each other, they form a tight band that limits movements.

Be careful when you share this information with a yoga instructor who in her late 70’s can bend like a pretzel.

Apparently, no one told her that she can’t-do it because of collagen fiber cross-links.

Continous movements through a wide range of motion will improve flexibility at any age. Proper nutrition and hydration are two additional factors.

Heart Rate and Metabolism

Metabolism and heart rate reduced by age. The formula to calculate the maximum heart rate at an age is 226 minus age. That means a 20-year-old has a projected heart rate of 206 and a 60-year-old has a projected heart rate of 166.

Maximum heart rate translates to how hard you can push your body, how many calories you can burn during an exercise session and how you change your resting metabolic rate.

The after effect of exercise and building muscle mass depends partly on how you increase your heart rate and the connecting breathing. All these impact your metabolism.

Vitamin D shortage and consumption of animal products as well as foods that increase the acidic forces of the body prevent calcium from reaching the bone and leach the calcium out of the bones.

All these are correctable. And the weight training at adequate load will increase bone density with proper nutrition.

Again, it boils down to your choice of actions and their outcome.

Muscle Mass

Muscle quality and mass reduces by age. A decline of five percent every ten years is projected. That percent of decline means 30 to 40 percent of muscle mass and the strength that goes with it is lost by the time of retirement.

You may want to hold off on picking out a casket.

A look at female bodybuilders in their late 60’s, 70’s and 80’s paints a different picture. Their strength training regiment produces phenomenal results that defy the common beliefs about aging.